Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
Every day in February you'll find me out and about,
Going out walking and listening to the wisdom of nature.
And today I'm out in my village and just strolling through some of the grounds that we have here around the houses.
We're very fortunate actually,
We've got parks and big large grassy areas and trees growing and daffodils coming through and I've just spied crocuses coming through as well.
And I'm just pausing to talk to you as I reflect on something that I've been reflecting on for a few days.
So let me tell you the story.
The other day a neighbour of ours was very poorly and she was taken to hospital and she came back home and my husband,
Who loves making bread,
He makes sourdough bread,
But he took over some bread and we'd made some soup and he took over some soup as well so gave her some bread and soup and just said welcome home and let us know if we can help you anymore.
Anyway the upshot was that she had the soup and the bread and she got back to my husband and said I just need to let you know that your bread was so delicious,
Where did you get it from?
And they had a little exchange on text,
Some messaging and he said well I didn't buy it anywhere,
I made it,
That's that sourdough bread and I've made it and she said can I come over and see how you make that bread because I would so love to make the bread.
And so she came over and she brought her teenage daughter with her because her teenage daughter had also loved the bread and I was half listening to my husband and as he was showing them the process of bread making and they were taking notes and it occurred to me as he was talking to them,
I noticed my husband making the bread and I love it,
It's very relaxing.
It takes several days,
A loaf of bread takes several days to nurture and he feeds the starter dough,
It's a sourdough starter dough and then eventually he'll make up some dough and knead it and leave it and prove it and I don't even know all the different steps of the process but he does it over probably several hours,
Maybe a day,
Maybe more than a day,
I don't know.
But what I do know is that the bread is delicious and I know that there is something that feels so even more delicious,
Not just the taste but the fact that it has been handmade and we have watched the bread being made is so,
It makes it very very special.
So my husband was taking through my neighbour and her daughter on the bread making process and it just occurred to me that they probably didn't realise that making bread was such a long process,
Particularly the way that he makes it and I realised that he doesn't just make a loaf of bread,
Like the point of the bread is of course to make a loaf of the bread but actually he is in relationship with that process along the way.
He's listening to the bread,
He's listening to the dough,
He's noticing what's happening to it and whether it needs more flour or water or it needs more time to rise,
He is listening to the bread and he's developed a relationship with it and I wondered whether my neighbour would actually go and make some bread herself or whether it just looked like too much trouble and I felt quite sad in a way that in my life there are so many things that are a lot of trouble so I don't bother doing and yet what I saw with what my husband was showing and sharing with our neighbour is that the process is it,
There is real love and care that he has in that process,
He listens to the bread as he makes it,
He's in relationship with it and in a world where we often do things because they're really quick and fast,
If I need to go to the shops I just jump in my car and drive to the shops and get what I need and come back again,
In this kind of world where everything is so convenient we lose sight of the process that was taken to create the very things that we use and consume and eat and so for me it's a real reminder,
My reflection over the last few days has been what is it that I'm missing out on,
What do I speed through in life where in actual fact slowing down and creating and making it myself might be the very thing that is needed for me,
The process,
Being in the process,
Making it,
Creating and then really enjoying the fruits of my labour,
Whether that's cooking,
Whether that's creating something,
I love crocheting,
It doesn't really matter,
It's not always about finding the shortcut and so that's what I'm reflecting on today and maybe you can too is what in your life might you give time to and create a process out of,
So you're creating something and enjoying that process and you're not just rushing to the end point.
